the long way home
by halcyon calamity
Summary: Rose Weasley is bold, bright, beautiful. She is not the girl that is paralyzed from the waist down after an unfortunate quidditch accident; until... she is. Four-shot.
1. unbroken

Rose Weasley is bold, bright, beautiful. She is not the girl that is paralyzed from the waist down after an unfortunate quidditch accident; until... she is.

- : -

_She is falling._

_The colors rush by and she hears some cheering - probably because Slytherin just scored again - and it hasn't really hit her yet that _bloody hell she is falling.

_Her rain-soaked robes are heavy, but all she feels is a lightness that seems to set her free. The adrenaline courses through her veins; her ears pound and her hands grasp at air. The last thing she sees is a flash of emerald green against rolling gray clouds, but pouring rain blurs her vision._

_She's not sure who screams, herself or someone in the stands. In fact, she's not sure if anyone screams at all; it might just be her mind screaming, having finally realized - _

"Rose!"

- : -

**the long way home**

unbroken

_in pain, there is healing _

- : -

"Rose!"

Eyes jolt open at the sound, open but unseeing. Slowly, she realizes what she is looking at: a completely bare ceiling.

"She's awake! Call a Healer! For Merlin's sake, James, _calm down_ -"

"Someone needs to get Uncle Ron and -"

"Hugo, _stop pushing _-"

"Al, make Lucy stop whining -"

"Rose." She feels someone squeeze her fingers gently and struggles to see who it is. A flash or short blond hair, amidst a sea of gingers - Louis.

She squeezes back and pulls a strangled, pained smile, but her eyes are full of questions. whowherewhenhowwhy_what -_

"All of you, out!" A matronly woman pushes through the masses, clipboard and potion in hand. "Miss Weasley needs _rest. _Family only. _Closest _family," she hastily corrects, seeing everyone about to protest. They shuffle out one by one in whispers, but Rose clenches Louis' hand and doesn't let go.

He gently pries her fingers off his own. "I'll be back," he promises, "but you need to talk to your parents first."

She'd nod if she could bring herself to, but Louis seems to understand by just looking into her eyes.

"Rosie!" Ron and Hermione hurry in as Louis smiles softly at her and slips out the door. "Oh Rosie, we were so worried -"

"Hi," she croaks, her first time speaking. "Can you tell me -"

"Quidditch accident," Hermione replies, shaking her head. "Honestly, such dangerous conditions... they should have known better than to hold a match."

"Who won?" she asks tentatively, even though she already knows the answer.

"Slytherin did," Ron says disgustedly, "but it wasn't on fair play. It only lasted a few minutes after you fell. Which by the way, we _will_ be pressing charges for."

"Pressing... charges?" So, Malfoy caught the snitch after she fell...

"That son of a bitch Malfoy Junior..." Ron clenches his fists, but relaxes slightly when Hermione puts her hand on his shoulder.

"He crashed into you," she says softly. "It could have been anyone, though. The wind was so strong... you weren't that high up, but no one slowed your fall because Slytherin had just scored, no one was really paying attention to the other side of the pitch -"

"But I'm okay, right? No harm done. Although I'm probably going to need a new broom, huh?" Rose sits up, feeling the cold air hit her back, exposed by the hospital gown. "Let's just go home."

"Rose, wait -"

She tries to swing her legs off the bed to stand up, but nothing happens.

_Nothing happens._

"I... " She looks up to her parents, who have worried looks on their faces. "I can't move my legs."

"I know," Hermione grimaces, tears already springing to her eyes. "I know."

- : -

She stays at St. Mungo's for three more weeks and starts physical therapy. Everyone treads lightly around her, although she can't blame them - their beloved Rosie, the one who was always running ahead of the pack, _can't walk._

Mrs. Wood, who she insists Rose call her Katie (Katie _Bell, _yeah, the one that set ten different records in the League before she retired, and one of the most revered female Quidditch players in _history_), offers her condolences but gives the cold, hard truth - she's in no condition to join the Harpies in the fall like she originally planned, after graduation.

And just like that, her Quidditch career is over, before it even began.

She tells her parents she'd like to go back to Hogwarts, to have some semblance of normalcy in her life, but she already knows it won't happen. There is no way she can navigate the moving, twisting staircases of the castle with a wheelchair.

Her parents visit everyday, despite their busy careers. Usually, Rose pretends to be asleep so she can avoid the awkward conversations that need to happen. They sit quietly and try not to disturb her, although sometimes her mother will burst into tears and ask _whywhywhy Harry was perfectly fine, third year _and her father will remain silent.

But Louis and Albus are different. They've been her best friends - Louis especially, seeing as they're in the same house and all - through thick and thin, and this is no exception. They visit as often as they can (_"Well, the Headmistress wasn't too happy with us, but she loves you too much to actually stop us from coming," Albus whispers conspiratorially, making her smile for the first time in days_) and sometimes they manage to sneak in some Hogwarts food, unlike the disgusting gruel here they call "edible".

Once, they bring her Honeydukes chocolate.

She knows there's a reason why they're her favorite cousins.

Two weeks in, they try to sneak her out of there, using _Mobilicorpus _to levitate her out of the hospital bed and quickly getting her to change into some robes. They make it into the elevator before the nurses come shouting after them, but Rose is laughing, really laughing,and the boys lose their visiting privileges for three days (_"It was worth it," Louis winks, right before they're marched out of there. "Anything to see you laughing again."_).

_We miss your smile, _her friend Alice writes in one of her many letters (because she's not actually family, so McGonagall refuses to let her come). _We miss you constantly asking questions in class, too, but it's mostly your smile. Because they were always so __real._

So she does. It's hard the first few days, especially when it's quiet, with Albus and Louis banned from visiting, but she really does try. She stops avoiding her parents, starts chatting with her nurses more. The wooden pieces of what was once her Nimbus 3000 are swept away from the little corner of her hospital room, for good.

"Don't push yourself too hard, Rose," Louis (_always the sensitive one_) says softly, when they're finally allowed back in and Albus (_always the happy-go-lucky one, how he got into Slytherin she has no idea_) is looking for the restroom again because he keeps forgetting which floor its on.

"What do you mean?" she asks, smiling (_again. Good god, her cheeks are starting to burn_). Louis just shoots her a look (_do you _really_ think that's going to work on me?_) but keeps his mouth shut after Albus returns, loudly announcing his bladder has been relieved (_"I did _not_ need to know that, Al! Mental images, mental images!"_).

And so life goes on.

- : -

She is released the Sunday of Easter Break, so naturally the whole family decides they must throw a Welcome Home party for her. She's glad, she guesses, that they care so much, but at the same time she just wants time to _adjust _to not having legs that are, you know, _functional._

It is extremely awkward for everyone, she realizes, not just herself. For example, she and James have always bonded as the best Quidditch players in the family, and now he has to avoid the topic in fear of having her blow a gasket (_she appreciates it really, but can they just stop tiptoeing around her?_) and now she realizes they really don't have that much else to talk about. Of course, some of them do their best to treat it nonchalantly, like Dominique, who always gives Aunt Fleur a heart attack with her swearing (_"You lucky bitch! I want to get pushed around all day in a wheelchair!", making her laugh for thirty seconds straight_) and Fred, who passes on to her a box of Puking Pastilles 2.0 even though he knows she would never use them to skip class (_at least, not before_).

But her mother is the most teary-eyed, with proclamations of _I am so proud of you!_ and _That's my baby girl_, things she hasn't really heard since she rejected the Head Girl position in order to focus on her Quidditch Captaincy. It's a relief that her mother will probably feel too guilty to hold it against her anymore, but at the same time she feels guilty herself, for getting out of it so lightly with just one, unintentional, disastrous_ accident_.

But she digresses.

Apparently, her mother has been working for the past few weeks on a magically controlled levitator, which should make it much easier for her to manage the staircases of Hogwarts. One glance at it, sitting right there in the middle of the living room, makes her break down in tears.

Of fear or happiness, she doesn't really know.

_Rose Weasley is going back to Hogwarts, bitches. In style._

- : -

_So this is a bit of a new style for me, but I've been reading some beautiful, beautiful pieces lately and they inspired me. But I had to return to my OTP, Rose/Scorpius :) I wrote half of this and then left in on Google Docs for a good two months before returning, so I like the second half much better than the first, but whatever. This'll be a four-shot, and don't worry, Scorpius will be appearing next chapter. I published something a bit similar to this (His Green Eyes) a few months ago but took it down because it wasn't angsty enough for me, so we'll see how this works._

_Review if I should continue?_


	2. unfeeling

Rose Weasley is going back to Hogwarts, bitches. In style.

- : -

_Rose shivers, squinting to see the colorful masses streaking through splattering raindrops. According to Fred over the loudspeaker (and McGonagall's subsequent scolding), Lily has made another goal, one of seven in this game. Rose is proud of her cousin, but as Captain she can't take all the credit - Lily definitely inherited her chaser skills from Aunt Ginny. _

_Rose just gets to be sadistic and put her through grueling practices four times a week. _

_Uncle Harry seems to think she's turning into the next Oliver Wood, but it's certainly not an insult. Quidditch is her life (much to her mother's dismay, and her father's delight). _

_A flash of gold catches her eye near the Slytherin goalposts, but it's too rainy to see if it's the Snitch or just the glint of someone's wristwatch. But Rose has been sitting bored for almost an hour now in the relentless rain, and she's eager for some action, so she flies off in the direction anyway._

_She's a Seeker because she loves the thrill of the chase (that, and she can't chuck a Quaffle for her life). She's always been the free spirit, reluctant to fly in formation and follow plays like the Chasers and Beaters do, even if she's the one writing the strategies, as Captain. She's gotten into accidents more than once - Madam Pomfrey has lectured her too many times to count - because of her recklessness, weaving in and out of the other players on the field to get where she needs to go. Albus thinks she's crazy, but Rose knows better - she's just another adrenaline junkie, high off the rush as the wind hits her face._

_It's a good thing she's perfected the art of dodging, swerving around everyone, and by now, after six years of being on the Gryffindor team, everyone's learned to stay out of her way. But the wind is too strong for March and the rain seems to blur everything, and she was supposed to be fine - _

_He wasn't supposed to crash into her, though._

_Rose isn't very built, but then again, Seekers aren't supposed to be. Which puts her at an obvious disadvantage when she runs headfirst into Scorpius Malfoy, Slytherin's star chaser who, as witnessed by the majority of girls at Hogwarts, went through puberty Fifth Year._

_Shit, meet fan._

- : -

**the long way home**

unfeeling

_just because it's all in your head, doesn't mean it's not real_

- : -

"I heard the Harpies rescinded their offer -"

"The Weasley family is pressing charges -"

"Malfoy's dad didn't even care, apparently! Once a Death Eater, always a - "

" -and that's why Albus Potter and Louis Weasley were always disappearing! McGonagall always favors them, it's so not fair - "

"If she hadn't been flying like a madman, this wouldn't have -"

"Are you joking? It was obviously Malfoy's fault, _everyone_ knows Rose Weasley's flying style by now -"

"Rose, if you stare at your pancakes any longer, they might deflate."

Rose looks up from her breakfast and shoots Alice a sheepish look. "Sorry.. my mind has been elsewhere, lately."

"Ignore them," her friend tells her, before pausing to glare at the Third Year Ravenclaws that seem to think the accident has affected her hearing, as well. They scamper off hastily, probably to spread a rumor that Rose looked particular ready to murder someone this morning.

Just lovely.

She came back late last night when the halls were almost empty, so she hadn't been forced to endure the stares and whispers, especially not with the whole family waiting on her every beck and call, ready to protect her with their lives (_a bit too dramatic, even for them_).

"Get back to your lives," she told them last night, after they safely saw her to the Gryffindor common room, the entrance have been modified a few years ago so that even she can get in without climbing through the portrait hole. "I just want everything back to normal."

And because she's the one with the levitator, they agree. They do not join her for breakfast, although Albus and Louis do stop by from their respective tables, because it's tradition that they each spend breakfast with their own friends and try to socialize outside of the family. Lunch, they will cluster, and then dinner they will all eat together.

She's kind of regretting her decision now, because everyone is pointing and staring and gossiping like she's really ignorant enough to not notice, and Alice, who's always been the more protective, motherly one of them both, is having a hard time fending students off.

But Rose will stick to what she said, no matter what, so she shoves the plate away, food barely touched, and backs up from the table. The levitator, surprisingly, functions a lot like a broomstick, sensitive to even the slightest touch.

"Potions first," Alice sighs, getting up from her seat, and the two head towards the dungeons. "I know you probably don't need them, but I do have notes that you can copy."

"I caught up while I was in Mungo's," she replies, staring straight ahead, not daring to glance at the students who push themselves up against the walls as if she's going to run them over. "It was so boring there. Your letters might have preserved my sanity."

"That's what friends do," Alice smiles. "But Louis and Albus were there pretty often, right?"

Rose tells her the story about them trying to smuggle her out, and by the time the two reach the dungeons, they're giggling together. It's nice to know that she can still laugh.

"Oh," Alice stops, biting her lip as they enter. Rose notices the seating has changed since she left. "Professor Garfoile assigned partners two weeks ago, based on ability, so..." she blushes.

"Is Louis your partner?" Rose asks knowingly, with a teasing smile. It is, after all, a NEWT-level class, so students from all four houses will be present.

"I told you, Louis and I are not interested in each other," Alice declares hotly. "We were in Third Year, and we thought hand-holding was beyond cool. That chapter has long been sealed shut."

"So..."

"My partner is Albus," she mumbles, almost too softly for Rose to catch. "Shut up!"

"I didn't say anything!" Rose cries defensively, but she can't erase the large smile from her face. Albus has had a crush on Alice for ages, and now it looks like her best friend has finally noticed.

"You might as well have," the blonde groans. "Go sit over there, I don't want to hear anything from you."

Rose grins before heading to the small table where Alice has pointed, getting comfortable. Her partner isn't here yet, but then again, she did leave the Great Hall in quite a hurry to get away from everyone. There must be at least another ten minutes before the professor will arrive.

She stares at the blackboard, eyes following the chalk residue that hasn't quite been erased. She hears footsteps as more and more Seventh Years filter in; she listens as the noises falter, as if taken aback she is sitting where she is. She has been gone for a long time, after all. Rose wonders if her partner was resigned when he or she had to complete all the work by him or herself.

A certain rhythm of footsteps becomes louder as they edge closer - Rose can hear the cautiousness, the trepidation. Whoever they are, they're wary, but then again, she can't really blame them. The levitator itself is freaky enough.

She takes a deep breath before plastering that smile on her face again. It's now or never, she reminds herself. She wants to have a good idea, no matter how horrid breakfast was, and this is where it will begin.

"Hello," she greets cheerfully, hoping to Merlin it doesn't sound as fake as it seems to herself. "I'm sorry you had to - "

Blue eyes meet gray, and in that moment, she thinks the day will probably suck after all.

- : -

"I heard Malfoy was your potions partner," Fred comments at lunch, right after swallowing a bite of his sandwich. Rose refuses to look at his face; instead, her eyes trace the way his Adam's apple bobs. "Must've been traumatizing."

"More like _he_ was traumatized," Albus throws out, intensely focused on his own food. "Scorpius looked like he was scared shitless. I don't think he breathed a word during the whole lesson."

"He didn't," Rose confirms, picking at her own salad. "It was okay. He didn't say anything."

_But it wasn't okay._ No, it wasn't, because Rose just attempted to smile at him and he looked away, as if scared to face an ultimate truth. She catches him sneaking glances at the levitator a few times, but that's it. No frivolity, complete silence.

At least their potion was perfect.

But why does _Malfoy_ get to act like this? Why does she, the one that can't move her _goddamn legs_, have to paste on a smile and pretend to be fine when he gets to act all moody and avoid everything?

_Why does he get the easy way out?_

"That little git," Fred mumbles, his mouth half-filled with mashed potatoes. "All of this is his fault and then he can't even look at you? What kind of person _does_ that?"

"Stop," Rose commands harshly, glaring at Fred. "It's not anyone's_ fault_, okay? It just _happened_. The weather was shit, my dodging was shit, and Malfoy was in the wrong place and the wrong time. Don't go blaming him for something he couldn't control. He didn't purposely ram his broomstick into mine."

The Great Hall is deathly silent, and it seems as if every has fallen quiet to hear Rose's snappish words. Rose looks across the hall to the Slytherin table, where Scorpius Malfoy, sitting off to the side, quietly clenches his fork.

If he would just look at her, she would acknowledge him without hatred, maybe even smile in his direction. But he doesn't, and so she leaves the Gryffindor table, excusing herself to her dorm.

- : -

There are nightmares, often enough Rose gets frustrated with herself because she _knows_ she's not in any danger, that's she's safe and sound in her bed and not on a broomstick.

But they happen anyway.

She is high up in the air, the sun beating down on her face. She should be satisfied with a particularly rewarding practice, but she's not. There is something tugging at her, making her cautious. The pitch should be one of her safe areas; a place where she belongs. But this is unnatural. This is _fear._

And then she is falling. Fast enough that it feels as if she's floating in nothing, but she hears the screams anyway, because she knows the end to this story.

And then she wakes up, completely rigid in her bed, breathing hard and clawing at the hair sticking to her sweaty face.

_There is nothing to fear but fear itself._ So why is this so difficult?

- : -

One of the first (_finally_) warm days of spring finds Rose and Louis sitting by the lake. It's perfect conditions for Quidditch today, and she can see the students, far off in the distance, laughing as they pass a Quaffle back and forth.

It's enough to shake her, badly.

Louis is her rock. Always has been. The craziness of her family is the raging ocean, beating relentlessly against the shore, but Louis remains strong. He was the first to support her in accepting the Harpies' offer, especially when she knew it would disappoint her mother. He was the first person she woke up to in the hospital. It seems right, then, that he is the first person to know of her fears.

Rose spills out everything - her frustration with herself, with the gossiping classmates, with Malfoy. Louis listens patiently, without interrupting.

"I think... fear can be overcome, one step at a time. But guilt must be forgiven, first."

- : -

"May I sit here?"

Malfoy looks up at her to glare, then freezes. Rose waits for a few seconds, but he doesn't respond, just stares at her as if she's gone mental.

"Thanks," she replies sarcastically, setting her books down and letting her levitator touch the ground. This table is hidden away between the shelves of the library, on the opposite end of where most of the Ravenclaws spend their time. There is no one to watch and judge, here.

_It's like the Quidditch pitch_, Rose thinks. Where she can be_ free._

"I've never really spent that much time in the library, you know." Rose looks around, as if inspecting the dusty tomes around her. "It wasn't really my thing."

"You have the second-best grades in the class," he voices disbelievingly, his voice strangled, as if he hasn't used it in a while.

Rose shrugs. "That was all just, you know, intellect. I spent most of my time flying, not cracking down on schoolwork." _But now I can't fly, so here I am_ goes unspoken, but they both hear it loud and clear.

"I doubt you'll be able to catch up to me," Malfoy drawls, as he feebly attempts a smirk. Rose laughs, genuinely This is the Malfoy she has known, just the cocky bastard he is.

"We'll see," she returns, her eyes hard and challenging. Finally. Without the Quidditch Cup as her goal, she'd been floundering. She can feel the adrenaline pumping again, as she banters back and forth with Malfoy, hidden away from the prying eyes of Hogwarts.

This is a beginning. Of what, she is not quite sure.

- : -

_Sorry for the wait? I lost interest in this pairing for a while, but I am determined to finish this. I don't know if you've read Seven Reasons Why, another fic of mine, but I'm contemplating finally getting around to the epilogue. It'll be short and succinct, but I think it will be enough for closure, which is why this might not be the next fic I update. _

_Your reviews fuel my passion for writing. Any feedback is appreciated._


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